Alwaght- A United Nations human rights expert said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman was involved in the murder dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In a new report that blames Saudi Arabia for Jamal Khashoggi's killing, a United Nations human rights expert has provided a minute-by-minute account of the journalist's execution and dismemberment inside the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city.
Those details, based on Turkish intelligence audio recordings, make for grim reading.
They recounted how the Washington Post columnist's suspected killers discussed cutting up and transporting a body as they waited for what they called the arrival of the "sacrificial animal".
"Joints will be separated … If we take plastic bags and cut it into pieces, it will be finished," one of the suspects is quoted as saying in Wednesday's report.
The recordings and other evidence collected during a six-month investigation showed Khashoggi's death on October 2 last year was "planned" and "premeditated", said Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur for extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions.
Holding Saudi Arabia "responsible" for the murder, the rapporteur said there was "credible evidence" to warrant further investigation of the involvement of high-level Saudi officials in the murder, including that of the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).
Callamard urged UN bodies, particularly the office of the secretary-general (UNSG), to launch an international criminal investigation and called for sanctions against MBS.
Callamard said she believed the UN chief "should be able to establish a follow-up criminal investigation without any trigger" by other UN bodies or member states. "It would be absurd to limit the intervention of the UNSG to such scenarios," she added.
The call was supported by prominent rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Commenting on the report, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan underlined its findings that the Saudis were "guilty", had "knowledge" and took a "wrong" attitude towards Turkey.
"They will account for this and they will pay a price," Erdogan said.
Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by a group of Saudi operatives shortly after he entered the country's consulate in Istanbul last Oct. 2.
Riyadh offered various, conflicting narratives to explain his disappearance before acknowledging he was murdered in the diplomatic building while seeking to shift blame for his death on a botched rendition operation being carried out by rogue agents.
